News | July 2005

California artist Tony Pro won the top award at the 14th annual Oil Painters of America national show at Hilligoss Galleries in Chicago, IL, in May. His oil painting mother’s love earned the artist the American National Award of Excellence and a $12,000 prize, awarded by juror Dan Gerhartz. Both William Scott Jennings and C.W. Mundy received an Award of Excellence for Master Signature Members; Johanna Harmon took home the PleinAir Magazine Award of Excellence; and Romel de la Torre was honored with the Jack Richeson & Co. Award of Excellence. Other winners included Zhaoming Wu, Debbie Stevens, Calvin Liang, Tim Diebler, and Clayton Beck.

Ullberg Installations

Colorado sculptor Kent Ullberg has been busy lately with a string of sculpture dedications in Texas. His figurative piece danzamar was installed at the Performing Arts Center at Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi, in April. Another bronze, titled the journey’s end, was unveiled in March in nearby Seagull Park, which was renamed Ullberg Park in his honor. A third piece depicting an eagle was dedicated last month at the Federal Reserve Bank building in Houston.

Top Honors at Salon International

Of more than 240 paintings by artists from around the world, Taiwan-based Mau-kun Yim’s luminous portrait lady in shimmering red received Best of Show honors at May’s Salon International show, hosted by Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art in San Antonio, TX. Yim received an $8,000 award, sponsored by the International Museum of Contemporary Masters of Fine Art. Second place went to California painter Jeffrey Watts for katrin; and Illinois-based Romel de la Torre’s reverie fetched third place. Juror William J. Kalwick Jr. also selected works by Niles Nordquist, Andy Thomas, Arsen Kurbanov, Tim Holden, Rick Howell, and Brian Blood for top awards.

Out & About

The top prize at the 34th annual Trail of Tears Art Show and Sale in Tahlequah, OK, in April went to New Mexico painter K. Henderson for her son of earth…. Ezra Katz Gallery North has opened in San Anselmo, CA. The gallery features painters and sculptors from across the West…. Texas sculptor Bob Coffee won first prize at the Texas Sculpture Association’s March exhibit for his bronze pop the whip…. Newly selected board members for the Outdoor Painters Society are David Band, David Moreland Bates, Beverly Boren, Linda Glover Gooch, Rusty Jones, Kaye Franklin, Bruce Peil, Bob Rohm, and Ann Templeton…. The California Art Club’s Gold Medal Exhibition, which usually takes place in the fall, has been scheduled for April 2-23, 2006, at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

Grants for Art

The New York-based Judith Rothschild Foundation announced grants totaling $260,000 to support the work of 21 recently deceased artists whom the foundation deems “outstanding, yet under-recognized.” The contributions, which range from $5,000 to $20,000 each, go toward museum and gallery exhibitions, publications, acquisition of works for public collections, and the cataloging, conservation, and relocation of artists’ work. The projects include an exhibit featuring John Gutmann’s photographs at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, AZ; a showcase of paintings by Margaret Kilgallen at the Gallery at REDCAT in Los Angeles, CA; a biography on artist Alice Yamin to be published by the Archives of American Art in New York, NY; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s acquisition of a 1974 photograph by Hannah Wilke.

California Sale

Total sales at Bonhams & Butterfields April auction of California and American paintings and sculpture added up to $3.25 million, finding buyers for 220 of the 256 available lots. Francis Augustus Silva’s [1835-1886] 12-by-24-inch painting long branch beach fetched the top price at $171,250. Other highlights were the canal bridge, new hope, pennsylvania by Fern Isabel Coppedge [1883-1951], which sold for $138,250; Arthur Grover Rider’s [1886-1975] valencia shoresat $127,250; and river landscape by Childe Hassam [1859-1935] at $110,500. Auction records were set for Kenneth Bunn, Phil Dike, John Dull, Geza Kende, Roger Edward Kuntz, Xavier Martinez, Moses Soyer, and others.